There are few pictures that "captured" and showed a certain space and time like a picture Petar Lubarda "Night in Montenegro". This picture (format 81x99) was painted way back in 1951, but its relevance continues to this day. And who knows what and how long her further painting future is. To remind.
With this painting, Petar Lubarda presented it at the prestigious Third Biennale in Tokyo in 1955. won first prize. Among the elite participants of the Biennale, Petru Lubardi's competitors were Pablo Picasso i Marc Chagall. Pablo Picasso received the second prize and M. Chagall the third. (An impressive winning triumvirate.) It is interesting that the prizes were awarded in pearls.
1.
Numerous critics of painting generally agree on one thing, and that is that a bad painting carries only one dimension and idea, while a good painting opens up many, almost countless dimensions and values.
For this text, we will take only the social interpretation of Lubarda's painting "Night in Montenegro" or, more precisely, the social drama of this painting. It (the social dimension of the image) constitutes its basic, but not the deepest, nor the most important thread. Normally, the social value of an image cannot be separated from its aesthetic value, strong coloring, pronounced sonority, breadth of ideas, etc. Also, its "historicity" should be added to this picture, because the picture is a bold step forward by the author from the then ruling ideological social realism in art.
With the social and "historical" dimension of the painting "Night in Montenegro", Petar Lubarda significantly accelerated and partly launched a new non-dogmatic direction of the then Yugoslav social-realist painting. However, in order not to be completely unfair to social realism, Lubarda also has very good paintings from that period, which is the reason for the inner freedom and courage of Petr Lubarda. (To clarify further. Lubarda did not destroy social-realism in painting in order to destroy it. On the contrary. He added to it, revalued it by gradually introducing domestic, Yugoslav art to a higher level of civilization.)
2.
It is easy to see and known to many that Petar Lubarda was the painter of his Ljubotinj and Montenegro. There are countless other artists who are prisoners of their homeland. There is a long line of such artists who found and discovered the spark of universalism in their homeland. (I. Andrić, M. Djilas or Ć. Sijarić, for example.)
Lubardina's painting "Night in Montenegro" carries that social drama that is easier to express through the senses than to describe in any other way. A little more clearly, Petar Lubarda always carried the "sound" of Ljubotinj and Montenegro within himself and left it behind. He repeatedly and constantly researched, drew and explained Montenegro, its people, nature... In the picture, everything is connected, as we would say today, networked. Everything rests on powerful feet, powerful foundations, that is. powerful Montenegrin past.
So, with Petr Lubarda, everything springs from Montenegro, its man (who is eternally growling and who is eternally sullen, frowning), its traditions, its history, its psychology, its landscape and who knows what else.
In Ljubotinj and Montenegro, Lubarda recognized and painted universal, cosmic themes.
In his fascination with Montenegro, Petar Lubard even spoke the same speech that he heard in childhood and brought to the world from Ljubotinje.
3.
Perhaps one of the social secrets of the painting is its "stiffness" as if a giant jumped on something and remained suspended in the air. But there is also a deeper secret of the painting. And the painterly "cunning" of Petr Lubarda. Because great painters such as PL always leave some secret, some detail in the picture to be written about, discussed and doctorates are made. (Leonardova "Mona Lisa" or Caravaggio “Darcissus” is such a picture, for example.)
As well as this "stiffness" of the image, Montenegro itself throughout the XNUMXth century - and apparently even today - could not descend normally from the jump and mythical heights to the ground without shaking, without breaking. Therefore, this painting by Lubarda has a deeper, pessimistic Montenegrin dimension. That plane is the painter's (concerned) thought about Montenegro, its fate and the fate of Montenegrin people. Hence Lubarda is as much a painter as a poet. And they - poets - see reality more deeply, more sensitively than any other "ordinary" artist.
4.
The picture has some "Picasso" in it. The genius Picasso in the monumental "Guernica" (giant dimensions 7,70 x 3,49) represents humanity and its spirit through the struggle of good and evil, reason and reason, all wrapped in the cry of the coming evil time. Picasso expressed all that drama of the spirit of civilization with only 3 colors (black, white, gray). Let me remind you, Guernica was a peaceful town in Spain (Basque Country) which was taken over by the German fascists on the market day of April 1937. literally razed to the ground.
Lubarda's painting "Night in Montenegro" presented a similar concern as Picasso. In the expression of the state of mind of Montenegro, Lubarda uses only four colors (black, white, red, purple). Those colors are not watercolor. On the contrary. The colors are very bright, strong, swollen, intertwined, "Montenegrin", while Picasso's colors are "monotonous", calmer, full of Christian blackness (sadness).
5.
But both painters interpret and represent reality, their vision of the reality of their universe. Picasso on one side and Lubarda on the other, opposite side. It is difficult to say whose social starting point is more universal.
Let's conclude.
Pear Lubarda was a born painter, because his talents are self-taught. (They create their own destiny, but also the destiny of the object of their research.) Lubarda was interested in almost nothing except painting.
What remains behind the painting "Night in Montenegro" is that it is really strange that such a small area as Montenegro - not to mention its Katun part around Cetinje - had so many strong personalities and great painters such as Petar Lubarda, Milo Milunović, Dado Đurić, Dimitrije Popović... and even Marina Abramović, by origin.
It is as if Montenegrin nationalism exploded by the 20th century in the best possible way - in painting in the XNUMXth century. It - painting - "bought" us and gave us a ticket and a chance to become part of a normal, leading planetary human civilization. But... "don't be the devil or Mr. God".
Bonus video:
